Omnichannel

If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you? It's that sort of bandwagon mentality that has Andy Graiser, co-president of A&G Realty Partners, skeptical about retailers rush toward outlet centers. "I'm a little concerned that a lot of these full-priced retailers are jumping into these outlets too fast and taking too many locations," he said. With consumers hungry for deals, brands from high to low are rapidly adopting these discount stores to whet shoppers’ appetites with deals, without slashing prices at their full-line stores and destroying their margins. 

Lauren Croke, director of web and e-commerce at luxury fashion brand Eileen Fisher, pointed to her company's collaborative atmosphere as the driver of its omnichannel success during a panel at Luxury Interactive yesterday in New York City.

Google is expanding its delivery service and will start charging a membership fee, intensifying its battle with Amazon.com for consumer spending. Starting this week, Google will charge $10 a month, or $95 a year, for unlimited same-day or overnight delivery on orders over $15. Nonmembers will pay $4.99 an order, or $7.99 if the order costs less than $15. Until now, the deliveries had been free. The service, initially named Google Shopping Express but now known simply as Google Express, lets customers place orders online for products from physical stores run by retailers including Costco, Staples and Walgreens.

Could this be Amazon.com's Miracle on 34th Street? The online retail giant will take on Macy's and other Herald Square retailers with a physical store of its own for the holidays in New York, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the plans. The Manhattan location would function as a "mini-warehouse" for same-day delivery in New York, product returns and pickups of online orders, according to the report.

While effective inventory management should be a year-round priority, it's particularly important for retailers in the last three months, when holiday cheer brings festive shoppers to stores. Companies have expanded their product offerings for Halloween and Thanksgiving, but their bottom lines will suffer if they make costly inventory management mistakes. Here are the three best ways to manage seasonal inventory:

CNBC's Courtney Reagan reports from J.C. Penney's analyst day where executives discussed the retailer's long-term financial strategy and CEO succession plan.

Lord & Taylor has figured out how to get the kids back into its department stores: Throw lots of parties and the millennials will flock. The department store is testing out the method in its Manhattan flagship, where it hosted a gathering of about 600 young women last Thursday to

Target has announced the release of a slew of enhancements to its mobile shopping offerings that promise to take location-based shopping to new heights when they go live later this month. Target has partnered with the startup Curbside to offer curbside pickup at 10 San Francisco Bay area stores. Guests simply place an order for store pickup through the Curbside app and collect their purchase in person at a convenient Curbside-branded trailer or tent near

When Pier 1 Imports first set out to develop its omnichannel business, it developed a "crawl, walk, run" approach. The retailer anticipated that the transformation would take it from a highly profitable retail store format to an equally compelling omnichannel business known as 1 Pier 1. However, things are progressing better and more quickly than expected. E-commerce has accelerated rapidly — growing from its launch in July 2012 to 4 percent of sales last year to nearly 10 percent of sales through the first half of this year. 

Jewelry and design have always been a part of Carolyn Rafaelian's life. Her father, Ralph, opened a jewelry manufacturing business in 1966. It was there that Carolyn developed her love of design. In addition to designing pieces for her father's business, Rafaelian began to create her own jewelry line. An overpowering sense of belief in those products led Carolyn to start Alex and Ani, the jewelry company named for her two eldest daughters.